Stackable inter-engaging bricks are used to build mortarless walls and this is known in the art. Wall building blocks which may be stacked and interlocked without being held together by a binding agent such as mortar are known. One such block has a top face which comprise a tongue element and a bottom face which comprise a mortise element. Both elements are configured in such a way that when two blocks are stacked, the bottom face of a block engages with the top face of a like block disposed below while the top face of the block engages with the bottom face of an above-disposed block. An example of such a block is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,995 (Bouchard et al.).
In the process of manufacturing stackable inter-engaging bricks 101 (FIG. 16), multiple attached splittable bricks made of brick material such as concrete are first cast in a metal mold. The molded attached brick units are then extracted from the mold 100 (FIG. 1) and conveyed through the manufacturing plant on steel or wood plates. The molded attached brick units are then cured in kilns in order to cure the brick material. Once cured, each of the attached bricks are detached in the middle in two individual split face bricks by the mean of a known splitting equipment. In this embodiment, every molded attached brick unit can produce two split face bricks.
The reason for manufacturing two split face bricks from a single attached splittable brick unit is found in the fact that, prior the completion of the curing procedure, an uncured single brick would be too fragile to be conveyed in the manufacturing plant without being unacceptably damaged or deformed in the process. Conveying uncured individual prior art bricks would result in an increase of defective or rejected bricks.
Also, the process of cutting attached brick units into individual bricks causes the bricks to have split faces, which may not be always desired.
The Bouchard mold, as the present mold, molds bricks standing on their side. It is important to understand that molding bricks on their side is not a simple design choice. As a matter of fact, inter-engaging bricks such as the bricks molded by the Bouchard mold are not held together by mortar. Such inter-engaging bricks are stacked rows upon rows in an inter-engaging manner. In that sense, the bricks are shaped such that the bottom portion of one brick is configured to engage the top portion of a brick located underneath.
The advantages of inter-engaging bricks are many. For instance, since they do not need mortar, their installation is typically much faster then regular mortar-held bricks. Also, such bricks can typically be installed by less skilled workers.
However, to provide a proper wall structure made from such inter-engaging bricks, it is important that the height of the brick, as viewed in their normal installed orientation, be constant, with low tolerance. Indeed, since such inter-engaging bricks are not held by mortar, the installer cannot use mortar to compensate for height variations between bricks during installation. Should the bricks have large height variations, the resulting wall constructed with such bricks would be misaligned as the cumulative effect of large height variations would be compounded over several rows of bricks.
Hence, by molding the bricks on their side, the bricks have very limited height variation but some length variations. However, variations in length are much less critical since bricks installed on the same row are installed side-by-side and any variation in length is or can be compensated for.
However, depending on the shape of the side section, bricks molded on their side can be unstable when standing on their side during the manufacturing process. In that sense, the shape of the side section of the bricks shown in Bouchard has been found to be somewhat unstable. The solution proposed in Bouchard was to link two bricks together with a bridging element. Once bridged, the overall side section of the bridged bricks is much more stable. Consequently, the bridged bricks can be carried around in the manufacturing plant with less risk of falling apart or being deformed, particularly in uncured state. In addition, the bridged bricks cannot rub against each other, preventing damages during transportation.
Still, the bridged bricks of Bouchard must be manually separated prior to installation. The manual separation involves the manual splitting of the bricks by hand and then the manual removal of the remaining portions of the bridge with a hammer. All these steps increase the manual labor required by the installers.
There is thus a need to find a mean by which stackable bricks could be molded, conveyed and cured individually without being damaged or deformed unacceptably and in such a way that the resulting brick faces could be smooth or embossed.